How to Count by Ordinals in Portuguese
July 26, 2011
Have you noticed that unlike Spanish, where they have proper names for the days of the week like lunes, martes, miercoles, jueves, viernes, sabado and domingo, in Portuguese it seems like they are counting the days instead.
Take for example Monday which is segunda-feira. It literally means second day doesn't it? Interesting right?
In any case, learning how to count by ordinals is useful, especially when someone is asking you in Portuguese which place Fernando Alonso got in last year's Formula One Grand Prix.
From the days of the week we already know how to order from second to sixth, but here's the rest of them:
Did you notice that after the 10th you only need to add the word décimo? That makes it easier to remember. Can you find any other pattern?
Patterns are like rules when learning a language. It will help us to remember easily how words are formed or in this case how the ordinals are formed.
Take for example Monday which is segunda-feira. It literally means second day doesn't it? Interesting right?
In any case, learning how to count by ordinals is useful, especially when someone is asking you in Portuguese which place Fernando Alonso got in last year's Formula One Grand Prix.
From the days of the week we already know how to order from second to sixth, but here's the rest of them:
| 1st | primiero | |
| 2nd | segundo | |
| 3rd | terceiro | |
| 4th | quarto | |
| 5th | quinto | |
| 6th | sexto | |
| 7th | setimo | |
| 8th | oitavo | |
| 9th | nono | |
| 10th | décimo | |
| 11th | undécimo/décimo primeiro | |
| 12th | duo décimo/décimo segundo | |
| 13th | décimo terceiro | |
| 14th | décimo quarto | |
| 15th | décimo quinto | |
| 16th | décimo sexto | |
| 17th | décimo sétimo | |
| 18th | décimo oitavo | |
| 19th | décimo nono | |
| 20th | vigésimo | |
| 21st | vigésimo primeiro | |
| 30th | trigésimo | |
| 40th | quadragésimo | |
| 50th | quinquagésimo | |
| 60th | sexagésimo | |
| 70th | septuagésimo | |
| 80th | octogésimo | |
| 90th | nonagésimo | |
| 100th | centésimo | |
| 200th | ducentésimo | |
| 300th | tricentésimo | |
| 400th | quadregentésimo | |
| 500th | quingentésimo | |
| 600th | seiscentésimo | |
| 700th | septigentésimo | |
| 800th | octigentésimo | |
| 900th | nongentésimo | |
| 1000th | milésimo | |
| 10000th | dez milésimos | |
| 100000th | cem milésimos | |
| 1000000th | milionésimo | |
| 1000000000th | bilionésimo |
Did you notice that after the 10th you only need to add the word décimo? That makes it easier to remember. Can you find any other pattern?
Patterns are like rules when learning a language. It will help us to remember easily how words are formed or in this case how the ordinals are formed.
Posted by mary jane.grueso.
